58 AMONG THE GREEKS. 



led to his adoption by, and great influence with, 

 the philosophers of the early Christian Church. 

 In general, the movement of free physical inquiry 

 among the Greeks was checked by the conquest 

 of Alexander and the loss of national independ- 

 ence. The interest in investigation into Nature, 

 and speculation upon the causes of things, sub- 

 sided. Ethics rose among the Stoics. The Epi- 

 cureans developed a mechanical and anti-teleologi- 

 cal conception of the Universe, but they did not 

 advance the inquiry into natural causation. 



Aristotle's scientific teachings were continued by 

 his pupils among the Peripatetics, Theophrastus 

 and Preaxagoras, and their successors, Herophilus 

 and Erasistratus. Unfortunately, the greater part 

 of the works of Theophrastus, who was both bota- 

 nist and mineralogist, are lost; his History of 

 Plants was an attempt to supplement the History 

 of Animals of his master. The last two members 

 of this school were physicians, who continued their 

 studies in Alexandria and became the most dis- 

 tinguished human anatomists of the time before 

 Galen. 



Pliny (a.d. 23-79), the Roman, the next natural- 

 ist of note, was rather a collector of anecdotes than 

 an observer. The last of the Greek naturalists 

 were Dioscoridus, a physician, observer, and bota- 

 nist living in the time of the Caesars, and the cele- 

 brated Galen, physician and anatomist, living under 

 Marcus Aurelius. Galen (131-200) has been com- 



